The Town Talk from Alexandria, Louisiana • Page 12

SECTION A PACE TWELVE ALEXANDRIA DAILY TOWN TALK, ALEXANDRIA-PINEVILLE, TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 1970 Apollo 13 Blast Would Have Been Fatal For Crew If It Happened on Return Trip Ship Is 2nd to Require Emergency Landing Is Armstrong managed to wrestle the Gemini loose from the Agena but could not stop the rolling of the Gemini and was ordered down in the western Pacific. Armstrong and Scott were picked up from their raft by SPACE CENTER, Houston (LTD Apollo 13's power failure caused the most serious crisis in the U.S. space program, but it wasn't the first spacecraft that required an emergency landing. Neil A. Armstrong, who later became the first man to step on the moon last July 20, got his baptism of fire in space during a similar incident four years ago.

It was on Gemini 8 and Armstrong and his copilot, David Scott, had just performed the first rendezvous and docking of two spacecraft March 16, 1966. Then, a thruster stuck in the two-man Gemini. The Gemini and the Agena rocket it was docked to spun crazily out of control, rolling almost once a second. Ten hours and 42 minutes into the planned 10-day flight, night lives as the worst nightmare in an American manned spaceflight. Closest Competition The closest competitor was Gemini 8, kicked into a tumbling spin by a wildly-firing thruster March 17, 1966, after making the first space linkup with another vehicle.

It made an emergency Pacific Ocean splashdown after just 10 hours in Earth orbit. "I guess I would have to say I feel a great deal more concerned (than during Gemini 8)," said Christopher C. Kraft, second in command of the space center and the man who designed mission control, in a news conference after the worst of Apollo 13's emergency passed. "We're still something like 70 to 80 hours away from the Earth. And in Gemini 8 we were never more than an hour and a half to a recovery point and never more than 20 minutes to landing." the LSS Mason, a destroyer, which reached them after three hours.

While Armstrong and Scott survived that emergency, the only deaths in the U.S. space program came on the ground. On Jan. 27, 1967, three astronauts died in a fire aboard Apollo 1 during a ground test. Many engineers believe the retesting and redesign that followed the deaths of Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee led to the reliability that marked the subsequent Apollo flights until Apollo 13's troubles.

By Edward K. DeLong SPACE CENTER, Houston (UPI) The explosion that ripped through Apollo 13 en route to the moon would have spelled certain death for James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise had it happened on the way home.

As it was, the mysterious blast in the command ship's fuel and power plant compartment crippled the vehicle's electrical system and created the most tense moments in the history of U.S. men in space. Most of the danger passed after the moon crewmen rigged emergency measures to use the electricity and oxygen from their landing craft, locked to the nose of the command ship, and employed the lander's engine early today to fire a "lifeboat" blast that put Apollo 13 on a course back toward Earth. No Landing Craft Had Lovell's crew been homeward bound from the moon at the time of the explosion, there would have been no landing craft to supply the life saving oxygen and the electricity to power computers, navigation instruments and radios necessary for a space voyage. most ambitious lunar landing ever planned.

Lovell, who in two Gemini missions and the Apollo 8 moon orbit flight piled up more time in space than any other man, has announced he will retire from space piloting when Apollo 13 returns to Earth. A Failure For the space agency, the $375 million flight must be chalked up as a failure that did not meet any of its primary goals. Scientists had hoped Apollo 13 would return from its Fra Mauro target in the lunar uplands with the oldest rocks man had ever seen perhaps up to 5.5 billion years old. Only six more landings are planned. Space agency officials said target selection for those six almost certainly will undergo an extensive review.

Officials may never know what actually happened in the service module section of Apollo 13. That is the part that houses high-pressure oxygen and hydrogen tanks; the engine that would have put the craft in lunar orbit and sent it speeding back toward Earth and the electricity-and-water producing fuel cells. The service module, like the landing craft, will be jettisoned shortly before the astronauts in their cone-shaped cabin slash into earth's atmosphere to end their harrowing voyage. The cabin has batteries and auxiliary oxygen for re-entry. Only the instrument readings radioed back to earth during the explosion will give engineers any clues why one fuel cell and one oxygen tank were completely knocked out.

But without doubt Monday Bad Luck Associated With Number 13 Struck the Apollo Moon Ship SPACE CENTER, Houston (UPI) At first the astronauts called the number assigned Misbaha beads known to the West as "worry beads" are carried in hand by both Lebanese Christians and Moslems, National Geographic says. They help count the number of prayers, and by the rhythm of their clicking tell the mood of the holder. (AT Wireihoto watched the telecast from the spacecraft Monday. Moments after the women left the center trouble developed in the fuel cells in the craft and a return to earth was necessary. ber cropped up for Apollo 13 in a lot of places other than its name.

Blastoff came at 13:13 central standard time, or 1:13 p.m. And now that the landing mission Mrs. Marilyn Lovell, wife of Apollo 13 Commander James A. Lovell, chats with Dr. Charles A.

Berry, director of medical research for the Manned Spacecraft Center at Mission Control where Mrs. Lovell and Mrs. Haise Wives Face Problem With Nerves of Steel Real Estate Loans B. Horn 4th and Johnston America's third moon landing flight "a joke." One crewman's wife called it "Lucky 13." But all the bad luck traditionally associated with number 13 struck Monday night. A power failure crippled Apollo 13 less than 22 hours before its planned rendezvous with the moon, wiping out all chances for a landing and endangering the crew.

The classically unlucky num- Relieve pain ot minor skin injuries quick-Switch to super-refined hospital quality MOROLINE WHITE PETROLEUM JELLY More for your money Another quality product of Plough. Inft has been aborted, a splashdown time of 12:13 p.m. EST has been tentatively identified by Mission Control. The big failure came on the 13th day of the month. Asked before the flight if he felt superstitious about the mission number, Thomas K.

Mattingly, one of the original crewmen replied: "Well, at first we were hoping we could launch on Friday the tirteenlh and have a patch with a black cat or something like that. But we steer away from all that. It's good for a joke." Bad luck struck Mattingly extra early. Two days before Although Apollo 13's voyage will be far from easy, the astronauts now face more annoyances and inconveniences than they do dangers. Space officials say there is plenty of oxygen about 48 pounds, which the astronauts will breathe at a total rate of about six or eight pounds a day.

With splashdown expected Friday, that leaves plenty to spare. But the crew may have to ration water. And the spacecraft will be hard to fly, because the landing craft can supply only enough electricity for the most essential instruments. Most of the luxuries for easier flying and navigation are gone. For Lovell and Haise, who would have landed on the moon, and for Swigert who would have orbited it while they went down, perhaps the most lasting blow will be the bitter disappointment of aborting the By Darrell Mack TIMBER COVE, Tex.

(UPI) Marilyn Lovell and Mary Haise, who have lived for months with the possibility their husbands might sometime be marooned in space, faced the failure of A'polla 13 today with deep disappointment but nerves of steel. "There were no tears," said NASA protocol officer Charles Bauer at the liaise House. Mrs. liaise is seven months pregnant. Mrs.

Lovell was "glued to the squawk box" but "composed," said Bob McMurrey at the fog- and she asked officials not to wake him. Jeff, 4, the Lovell's youngest son, also was asleep. The two girls, Barbara, 18, and Susie, 11, were told before they went to bed. Fred Haise, 11, and his brother, Steve, 8, also were asleep before the trouble developed and Mrs. Haise did not awaken them.

John L. "Jack" Swigert the third member of the crew, is a bachelor. At the home of his parents in Denver, his father was watching developments' on a small television in his bedroom. Swigert's sister, Mrs. Phlii'p Spenille of Fort Collins, a priest and two sisters of his mother were with the Swigerts.

(f) REGISTRATION FOR ST. JAMES MEMORIAL SCHOOL 714 WINN STREET FOR THE 1970-71 SCHOOL YEAR BEGAN ON APRIL 8TH AND WILL CONCLUDE ON MAY 1, 1970 FIRST COME FIRST SERVED OPEN TO ALL -ALL DEGREED TEACHERS the flight he was grounded because he had been exposed to Gat sjfgft German measles, to which he had no immunity. John L. Swigert was assigned to take Mattingly's place with James A. Lovell and Fred Haise.

Haise's wife Mary said before the flight: "We're calling it Lucky 13." It wasn't. The Conrads came over on Pete's red Honda 90 Scrambler motorcycle, which he leaned against a tree in the front yard of the fog-shrouded Lovell home. Asked if he were concerned about the safety of the Apollo 13 crew, Conrad replied "Nan." Neil A. Armstrong, the first man on the moon, hurried to the home of Mrs." Haise five houses away to reassure her during the waiting period. Alan L.

Bean, who landed with Conrad on Apollo 12, also came over and drew her a diagram of how the spacecraft will circle the moon and return to earth. Mrs. Haise, who had learned of the trouble from a bulletin on the 10 p.m. "didn't seem upset like you might expect somebody getting a flash like that," the protocol officer said. "She soon heard from (Deke) Slayton that there has been no personal danger," Bauer said.

On the Phone "Then she was on the telephone talking to Fred's mother who is alone in Biloxi, and called her own parents," Bauer said. "She was the one who was doing the reassuring that everything was under control." Mrs, Lovell called their oldest son, James A. Lovell 15, who is attending St. John's Military Academy at Delafield, Wis. lie was asleep, however, Open a Golden Passbook Account today.

Earn 5 at Rapides Bank. A shrouded home of Apollo 13 Commander James A. Lovell on Glenn Bayou. "Sure she's worried," Bauer said. "But she hasn't expressed any fear for his safety." Most Popular Mrs.

Lovell, whose smile and quick greeting has made her one of the most popular astronaut wives, spent the tense hours listening to the air-to-ground communications with neighbor Charles "Pete" Conrad and his wife, Sue, at her side. "I'm disappointed that they can't land on the moon and my only concern now is that they can safely return home," Mrs. Lovell said. Conrad, who led the successful moon landing mission of Apollo 12, told Mrs. Lovell of the bad news after being called by NASA officials.

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All I he new.smcn here to cover the planned third moon landing by a U.S. space team were lense, anxious and concerned. The word had gone out rapidly and accurately lo the apartments, motels, reslauranls and privale clubs surrounding the campus-like center a serious problem had developed in I he iinliMlit'n almost flawless flight of Apollo 13. First Questions "What happened? I low serious is il? How does it look?" were the first questions I he newsmen asked at the counter of the IJucry Desk. "We have a problem.

We The ROGERS B910W problem here," Swigert said. "Tiiis is Houston. Say it again, please," replied Capsule Communicator Jack Lousma. "Houston, we've had a problem. We've had a main bust unvervolt," Swigert said calmly.

The questions multiplied as the number of reporters grew. Not long after the first report, Mission Control ordered the shutdown of the three spaceship fuel cells the devices which use hydrogen and oxygen to generate power and water. "How big is this thing? Is it inches or feet or what?" one newsman asked staring at a diagram of a fuel cell in a research book. Seen Pictures "I've seen pictures of them wilh people. about this big," said one of the Query Desk men, marking off a two fool-by-four foot section on the tile floor.

An hour later at a special news conference in a jammed auditorium in another section of Hie building a grim-faced Christopher Kraft, deputy director of the Manned Space flight Cenler, explained the to perspiring news-men. "This i.s as serious a as we have ever had in manned spaceflight," he said. However, he said the three-man crew could be brought back safely if no further problems developed. featuring exclusive Distinctivo on lorn porn i stylod cabinet in omuiine oil W.ilnut vnnoms find hardwood solids ex-tlusivo of (loi.orativo hunt. I natums 40 w.iti pnak nuisio power snlid-staln uinplilior; lapn input output jacks; pro vision lor onith optional ex-tonsion spnakois with op 1ion.il adaptor kit.

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